Push Cart Rally

I remember the first time that I saw a push-cart in Jamaica, I was walking through the large market in Kingston and my host mom had to pull me to the side of the already crowded pathway to avoid a push-cart barreling through, filled to the point of overflow with soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, and any number of cleaning products. My first thought was, seriously?! This is a real thing? Not just a piece of bygone era that Disney dug up to add flavor to Cool Runnings. So obviously “Attend a Push-Cart Race” was one of the first additions to my Jamaica Bucket List.

One of my secondary projects is working with the Clarendon Crime Prevention Committee and we decided to throw a Push-Cart Rally.

The goals were:

1) To teach the push-cart drivers about the importance of road safety and especially when driving on the roadway with cars.

2) To improve police presence in the community in a positive manor.

3) To raise funds for the Clarendon Crime Prevention Committee and the Clarendon Peace and Justice Center.

Some of my friends came over from their parishes for the event. Here are some pics.

Here are Chantal and Claire waiting for the races to start.

Here we are on one of the winning push-carts.

Here we are with all of the drivers.

Here is a video of one of the four races. Please notice how impossible it was to keep the spectators out of the street and the last place driver who ran out of gas on the straight away and sat on the sidewalk rather than finish, it was hilarious. Pardon the subpar camera work.

All in all it was a very festive event, there were some issues with the timing and it could have run a lot smother but it ran and people had a great time. There were about 20 drivers that participated and about 200 people who came to the concert that evening.